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A Czech billionaire is accelerating his “contrarian approach” of acquiring carbon-intensive assets outside the EU, which has been given a boost by Donald Trump’s election as US president and promotion of fossil fuels.
Sev.en Global Investments, which is controlled by Pavel Tykač, has been buying assets such as coal operations in the US, Australia and Vietnam as it bets that the transition to cleaner sources of energy will be slower than anticipated.
Tykač’s strategy, partly aimed at shielding his company from stricter environmental rules in Europe, is now set to benefit from Trump’s return to the White House, with the president pledging that the US will “drill, baby, drill” and tap into fossil fuels.
The Prague-based company wants to double its overseas energy and mining portfolio over the next two to three years, providing evidence of fresh bullishness among investors in hydrocarbons after Trump promised to undo Joe Biden’s “Green New Deal”.
Petr Štulc, chief strategy officer for Tykač’s international operations, said that while it was too early to predict the impact of Trump’s election, diverging green policies around the world would create opportunities for investment.
“With Mr Trump being president, obviously this is not going to speed up the [green transition] process but the other way round,” Štulc said in an interview, adding that there could be “a significant slowdown in terms of the speed of the transition.”
Sev.en has also agreed to buy UK and Norwegian steel mills from Spanish group Celsa, having judged that the green transition had already run into trouble during the economic slowdown triggered by the pandemic, while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted western politicians to prioritise energy security.
The difficulty of getting big projects such as new nuclear stations completed on time would also slow down the move to cleaner energy, meaning that coal and gas would remain key to meeting countries’ energy needs, Štulc said.
“I see the slowdown already for a few years [and] I don’t really think this is a big surprise . . . the [green] transition is so complex that even though the plans were sort of thought through, the implementation is so difficult,” he said.
Tykač’s company has not ruled out making acquisitions in the EU but saw fewer opportunities in the region because “the level of regulation in the EU is high and life for some sectors is getting more difficult”, Štulc said.
Tykač is among a handful of Czech billionaires who have expanded far beyond their home market and gained an international profile. Daniel Křetínský, whose takeover of Royal Mail was approved by the UK government last year, has also bought gas-fired plants in Britain.
Sev.en has disclosed €1.9bn in consolidated assets outside its home market, excluding a Vietnamese coal power plant acquisition in 2023, and the takeover of the steel mills from Celsa last year.
The deals are awaiting regulatory clearance, and will double Sev.en’s overseas workforce to about 5,500 employees.
https://www.ft.com/content/a97f6c46-1836-4221-b549-dfa933dd60b6
